HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — Stop now if you’re a Philadelphia 76ers fan tired of reading encouraging reports about Andrew Bynum and his potential return to action.

But if you’re still a believer in the power of the big man and what he could do for the Sixers, this might be the stocking stuffer that’ll make your Christmas. Bynum, strictly an observer so far this season due to knee issues, seems to be feeling much better these days and is potentially on his way back sooner rather than later, per Bob Cooney of the Daily News.

Apparently seeing his old teammates from Los Angeles boosted Bynum’s spirits a bit over the weekend:

Former teammates made their way into the Sixers locker room before the game after the media was cleared, probably stopping by to see their former running mate.

“Winning championships there was fun,” said Bynum. “But obviously my time there is done. Health is the main concern with me now. I don’t regret anything. Personally, they traded No. 1 (him) for No. 2 (Dwight Howard) and that is what happened. I think Dwight is a great player and has to get accustomed to playing and not touching the ball on every play.”

While Bynum has done nothing more than observe during his time here, he appears to be itching more than ever to get back on the floor. His doctor’s visit on Thursday will go a long way on letting everyone know how soon that is to happening.

“I think I could do wonders for this team because right now we don’t have a lot of post threat and that would help free up a lot of our guys from the outside – knock down shooters and Jrue and Evan are playing a lot with the ball right now so it would be good to join them and Thaddeus, also.

“The update is that I’m feeling much better. From the beginning of this year, the state of the injury when I see the doctor hopefully I’ll be cleared for impact. Only the left knee (is hurting) the right knee is fine.”

Fine, so the news isn’t all good if Bynum’s left knee is still hurting. Still, the Sixers could know as soon as Thursday when they’ll have Bynum back in action. He’ll need time to get in game shape and get up to speed as quickly as possible to help out a Sixers team that has lost three straight and is fighting to stay at .500 or better right now.

If the Sixers want to stay in the playoff mix they’ll need a boost. And an inspired and reasonably healthy Bynum could be exactly what they need to get them back on track.

Philly should get some quality center in exchange for Bynum. Evan, Jrue and Thaddeus are playing great, and the team starts to mesh well. I don’t think they would really need a dominant post player, just an effective one. The likes of M. Gasol, Gortat, Pek, Hibbert, Monroe, Al Jefferson would benefit the team better.

Truth is, Bynum has the potential to be one of the most dominant C’s today. But immaturity aside, he also had a history of injuries and I don’t think he can help the 76ers deep into the playoffs. His knees are about to give in every year, and I don’t think he would really last that long as a dominant center in the league. Even if he gets his head right, it would just cost him games due to injury.

Right now, some teams might still think that Bynum can be the face of their franchise. I’d say Philly should look into a sign and trade deal. If they get one of the mentioned big men above in exchange, then Bynum has served Philly well.

i hear u njee-it’s supposed to be a team sport like what the Celtics have been doing for 60+ years-that’s why u don’t see Celts get much national wide overmedia hype-Doc, The Truth, KG, & Rondo always talk about WE-THE TEAM-these other superstars can’t even spell that word-and la-who, oh labron got a nerve to say a couple years ago that “we started a trend in the east” meaning bringing 3 allstars together on one team-Celts have been doing that long before most of us were born trend setting the entire nba-after that everybody forgot about team balln & only remember the name on their jersey. oh my bag-lol-forgot this article is about bynum-he’s just looking to collect nba paycheck for a while-injury, play, injury, play, nuff said. if he’s ever ready for real team balln we’ll welcome him to BOSTON!! 🙂

PHILLY COACHING STAFF SHOULD REALIZE THAT THEY DID NOT MAKE THE RIGHT MOVE IN PICKING UP BYNUM,HE IS UNHEALTHY PLAYER,HE IS VERY PRONE TO INJURY.ALL I CAN ADVICE TO PHILLY ADMIN THEY SHOULD SCOUT A POTTENTIAL BIG MEN WHO CAN DOMINATE AT THE POST.TRY TO LOOK AT EURO PLAYERS AND OTHER TOP RANK CENTER IN COLLEGE.

He IS immature – but i dont mind anyway … I wish Philly luck with him and well yes he had a few games when he was fully healthy – wish weren’t many – where he put up 20 and 20 and was also a good defender but this immaturity and his health issues with his knees – you know sometimes you watch em play and you can tell ok i give him 20 Games and then he is injured again – thats the kind of guy he is!

But good luck philly and philly fans – you would deserve better …

Good that i am a knicks fan – and when i remember right Bynum doea not like to play against Chandler 😉

Yes, Bynum is a good player but I neva expected for him to be the savior of the franchise, as some people said all because of his conditionin. See, thats the problem with the NBA today. Too many people depend on one guy. For New York, its Melo, for OKC, its Durant and for Chicago, its D-Rose. When are we goin to learn that basketball is a team sport and that dependin on one particular player is not goin to bring championships, at least not all the time. This wasn’t a problem back in the day, goin back to the beginnin of the NBA, when no player was bigga than the team.

Actually if you look at some of the stats — Dwight Howard’s season stats are very similar to Andrew Bynum’s last-season stats.

I knew the Lakers would make Howard look like an Andrew Bynum clone. I knew Kobe and Howard would butt heads. I knew Kobe would ball-hog and put Howard on the back seat. Howard’s going to want out of L.A. ASAP. Especially once the all-star break comes and the Lakers have to face a much tougher schedule — won’t surprise me if they finish the season under .500.

Won’t surprise me at all. I would actually predict the Lakers are a sub-.500 team.

The Lakers may have been better off sticking with Bynum for chemistry and sameness purposes. They jolt their starting lineup with the likes of Howard and Nash; they release certain key players; now, they’re the definition of an unorganized grabbastic pieces of amphibian spit. The Lakers are big-market, hollywood-drama-queen primadonna overrated pieces of trash.

I’ve been saying this well before this season started. Some people are finally starting (or having) to start agreeing with some of my uncannily accurate NBA predictions.

Will Philly rush Bynum in or will they p;ay it safe?
Feeling better doesn’t mean much when you haven’t felt good for a long time. If it was up to me, I’ll would give him time to heal. By the way, he might just be the best centre out there!

I hate to say this but we all know that once he gets back its just a matter of time to get injured again, his knees are wasted and coaches should really limit his minutes, if not pretty soon he will retire.

thats is so true. Kwami brown lamar odom all prove to be overated by LA media and fans. Its a shame to trade igodala after many years of loyaty and great effore for andrew bynum a broken center making money seating on the sidelines

See, now NBA teams are going to be reluctant to do any future major trades with the Lakers. Who the hell wants to trade for Pau Gasol? Teams will be afraid he’ll just pull a Lamar Odom or an Andrew Bynum. Nobody wants Gasol now; his market vaule has gone down drastically. Any interested or somewhat interested NBA team won’t want anything to do with the Lakers in any future major trades. They know going after Gasol would be foolhardy; he’ll probably wince — fake injuries or have a bad attitude or not want to play at all.

Dayum. Maybe the Lakers should move the team to Seattle, Las Vegas, or Kansas City. The Clippers pwn L.A. now.

Obviously, when he’s healthy he’s a threat in the paint and any team that doesn’t have Dwight Howard is fortunate to have him. He can definitely revive the city of Philadelphia… if healthy. The only thing is the guy doesn’t seem to stay healthy. Its unfortunate, but true. There are the maturity and work ethic issues as well. I’m all for believing in yourself and your capabilities but did he just say he was number one and Howard was number two? Let’s not get too carried away there Drew…

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Unfortunately Andrew Bynum is still very immature.
When he´s at his best he´d definitely help Philly alot.
But at the moment there are at least 5 Centers in the East (Chandler, Lopez, Horford, Bosh, Noah) that will dominate him right now even Hibbert is better.
But anyway good luck Philly!

are u all there?
He isnt immature first of all and ….
“But at the moment there are at least 5 Centers in the East (Chandler, Lopez, Horford, Bosh, Noah) that will dominate him right now even Hibbert is better.
Even at 65% he is better and more dominant than ALL of them!!!
quit hatin man, hes a franchise center. with no kobe he can easily do 25 & 14….EASILY!!
good luck andrew, your the best center in the league!!

C´mon are you serious? I am a Heat fan but that doesn´t mean that I am hatin´on Philly.
Bynum is like I said a very good player (if completely healthy) but you have to admit that he´s immature.
All the Centers that I´ve mentioned having their best season (besides of Bosh maybe).
He has to step up big to keep up with them. Be honest. Still good luck Philly!

emedr05
whats wrong with you
He took one bad 3 last year,,hahahahah…1 SHOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and it almost went in, had it gone down we wouldnt be hearing any of this bs from HATERS like you!!!
and lest we forget he average like 19 & 12 while getting 11 shots a game….yah hes a real prob for a team………

Man the guy at the top needs to learn about basketball. Chandler, Lopez, Horford, Bosh, and Noah are better than Bynum, that’s funny, every last one of those centers would get dumped for Bynum if talent was the only part of the equation. Once Bynum comes back before playoff the Sixers will be a very dangerous team. When the Sixers lose you’ll see that the only thing this team is missing is a way to run a half court set, at the moment they cannot run a half court set because they don’t have the personnel to run that type of offense. As far as Bynum being immature, he is slightly, but most of that is media hype. It would be a lot different if Bynum acted like Cousins, but still guys like that know what coaches they can pull that type of behavior on and which coaches they can’t. Collins is a well-respected coach around the NBA because he knows basketball, and he played the game and was actually pretty good. Also, with Turner and Holiday playing good basketball lately and improving each and every game once Bynum comes back that’s when the Sixers will be the team in the east fear.